


The Rubber Chicken

by MeredithBrody



Series: The NX Programme [2]
Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: Canonical Character Death, F/M, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-03
Updated: 2013-08-03
Packaged: 2017-12-22 07:18:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/910451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeredithBrody/pseuds/MeredithBrody
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A.G. has a rubber chicken, and he lets Erika know about it. Ten years later, the chicken resurfaces.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Rubber Chicken

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sokorra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sokorra/gifts).



> OK. This one is a weird one. As with my last fic, the first part of this oneshot was written for the drabble challenge on facebook (and to cheer Sokorra up). Then, Sokorra suggested a follow up, and it got feelsier than I expected. 
> 
> The drabble part is set in 2147 toward the end of the NX Programme, the ficlet part is set in 2157 in the middle of the Romulan War.

_As the rubber chicken hit the back of her head for the third time she was about ready to stab the more childish members of the NX team. If this was the first or second time she'd have sighed and ignored it, but she'd lost count when it hit fifteen, and now she was grinding her teeth more with every noise the two sat behind her made. "Stop it."_

_"I'm not doing anything."_

_"AG I swear on all that is holy I will end you." She mumbled and began typing up a messaged on the PADD in front of her._

_"How will you do that?" He asked, and she hit the send button and looked up at him._

_"I have pull you can't even imagine, and comm officers are like nurses, you piss one off you piss them all off." She muttered, and almost on command Lisa, another comm officer, walked in and shot AG the evil eye. It was amazing how fast she could disseminate information when she needed too._

_"How do you live with this?" AG looked up and asked Jonathan as he walked into the room with her mug of coffee, something that would stop her murderous impulses._

_"Never piss off the comm officers." Jon answered, kissing the top of her head and retreating quickly. The man might have many failings and be a bit of an idiot at times, but he knew when it was best to get out of Erika's immediate vicinity to avoid death or castration, and she wasn't sure which way she was going right now. It only took five more minutes for the chicken to hit the back of her head again, and this time they weren't getting it back, and she might just burn it to make an example._

_**-Ten Years Later-** _

Moving had never been something Erika enjoyed doing. She had had her apartment for 17 years, but now she didn't really have a choice about moving, the building was due to be demolished, and Jon had used it as leverage to convince her to move in with him this time. So she'd packed everything away, and they'd moved it across the city to Jon's place. He didn't really have the space for her stuff yet, at least not without filling his spare room, so the idea to unpack and see what they could get rid of had seemed like a good idea.

The big furniture had been an easy decision, it was a decade old and falling apart, so Jon's had won there, the photos had also been an easy choice, and about half of them were dotted around among Jon's, the rest were in a bag ready for if they moved to a bigger apartment at some point in the future. The rest of the boxes were harder, she wasn't even sure what most of them were. Mostly knick-knacks she'd picked up over the years, most of her clothes were up on Columbia, she actually didn't own much clothing. She was looking over a hidden stash of photos when Jon spoke from the other side of the room, shaking his head as he held something up in her direction.

"Hey, wasn't this AG's chicken."

She turned to look, and felt the smile grow on her face as she recognised it. "Yeah, I think so." She laughed as Jon slid toward her and settled next to her, putting the rubber chicken on the photo album she had been holding.

"Remember the day you confiscated this?" He asked, a grin on his face. There were some of AG's pranks she would never be able to forget, because they had been so memorable. There had been a lot of them too, but a few were more memorable than the rest. The chicken was probably the most memorable, if only for the reaction he'd had the following morning when she'd told him she'd disposed of it. She'd clearly just put it away somewhere and forgotten about it.

"He'd thrown it at me a couple dozen times, and I threatened to burn it." She laughed and leant against Jon. Thinking back to that time seemed like another lifetime, was it really only 10 years.

"You told him not to piss off the comm officers." Jon finished, resting his forehead against her cheek.

"Always good advice. I didn't even think I still had this." She muttered, trailing off thinking. However many problems and annoyances she and AG had had, he'd always been on of her best friends, and had been her rock when Jon had been given _Enterprise_.

Jon seemed to pick up on the sudden change in her mood, and shuffled a little closer, keeping his forehead against her cheek, but resting an arm behind her at the same time. Just helping her feel a little more secure. "Erika?"

"I miss him, Jon." She admitted, wiping her eyes. She hadn't even realised that she'd teared up a little, sitting on the floor and just looking at the chicken. She leant on Jon a little more, smiling as he kissed her cheek before he replied.

"I do too, he was a good friend."

"I keep thinking about, how if he hadn't died, I never would have gotten Columbia, and we'd never have been here." She leant back a little and shook her head at him, that was the one thing she hated about their current situation, she'd had to lose a friend to gain the rest of her life. She still mentally thanked AG every time something good happened.

Jon however, seemed to have a different thought on the situation. He shook his head at her with a frown, and she wondered what he was disagreeing with. "You can't say that."

"He was the popular choice for Columbia, you know that."

"I meant about us, one way or another we'd have always ended up together, but AG just took a final one for the team." He muttered, leaning into her again. She went back to looking through the pictures, clearly all from the NX programme, she'd enjoyed collecting the photos back then, saving them to show her family, her nieces, when it was all over. How had she forgotten about it all. She came to one picture, of AG and Sam carrying her and Veronica. She pointed it out to Jon and heard his chuckle.

"Do you remember that survival trip, right after we got together, and AG challenged Sam to climb the mountain carrying either me or Veronica?"  
Jon laughed a little louder and nodded against her cheek. "And AG called dibs on carrying you because you were smaller?" She had to admit that, she had always been the smallest on the team, but nobody had ever expected her before they met her. Jon leant back a little and looked at her seriously. "I seem to recall you panicking halfway up when the alcohol-induced confidence failed."

"You and Rob had to catch me when I fell, and I swore that I'd never go climbing with AG again." She laughed, remembering that part. Rob had threatened she'd broken his ribs for weeks, and even now tried to make her feel guilty when they saw one another.

"We all still went climbing every few weeks." Jon added, pulling her back against him and wrapping his arms around her. The unpacking all but completely forgotten as they took a trip down memory lane. More photos brought up more memories, most making her laugh loudly. Some painful, but she enjoyed them all. She came to the last photo, a large one of the original 6 on the team, AG standing tall in the middle, Jon beside him. Erika herself stood on the end, looking a little as if she'd accidentally wandered into the photo.

"We were all so young back then. Look at this." She pointed to the photo, looking at Jon out of the corner of her eyes. 

"The original team. Admiral Forrest and everything."

"17 years ago, this picture was taken 17 years ago." She shook her head, unable to believe that much time had passed, and that so much had changed. Everyone in the photo had advanced at least two ranks since it had been taken. Most of the lieutenants were now captains, the Captain had been an Admiral. Two of their number were no longer with them. It simultaneously hurt and made Erika happy about what they had achieved.

"I love you." Jon whispered before kissing her gently, putting the photo album down. Clearly realising that looking at the photos further would just make them both sad. He looked at her seriously a second later, and spoke quietly. "Thank you for the last 17 years. I wouldn't change a single thing." He kissed her again, then hit her gently with the chicken. She stood up and put it on the mantle, feeling it was just as deserving of a place in their home as any of the photos they had dotted around. She felt Jon's arms round her waist a second later as they both looked at her placement. "Good choice." He muttered, then pulled her back to the unpacking. Who knew what else they could find.


End file.
